How to Write a Creative Brief Your Agency Will Love (Free Template)
A good creative brief gets better work in fewer rounds. What to include, what to leave out, and a free creative brief template for reels, shoots and campaigns.
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The quality of creative work is decided long before anyone picks up a camera. It's decided in the brief. A vague brief gets you safe, generic work and endless revisions. A clear one gets you ideas that fit your brand, in fewer rounds, for the same money.
We read a lot of briefs. Some are three words long. Some are thirty pages. The best ones are somewhere in between, and they all have the same things in common. Here's how to write a creative brief that gets great work, and a template you can copy.
What a creative brief is for
A creative brief has one job: give the creative team everything they need to have the right idea, and nothing that stops them from having it.
That means it should be:
- Clear about the goal and the audience
- Specific about facts, deadlines and constraints
- Open about the creative solution
The most common mistake is getting this backwards: vague about the goal, rigid about the solution. "Make something viral, and it should have these five scenes" leaves an agency with no direction and no freedom.
What to include in a creative brief
1. Background
Who you are, what you sell, and what's happening right now. A new launch, a slow season, a new city, a new competitor. Two or three sentences is enough.
2. The goal
What should this work achieve? Pick one main goal:
- Reach new people
- Build trust with people who already know you
- Drive a specific action: bookings, orders, enquiries, visits
If you have three goals, you probably have three briefs.
3. The audience
Who exactly is this for? Describe a real person, not a demographic. "Young professionals in Delhi who order dessert late at night and love trying new things" is far more useful than "18 to 35, urban."
4. What they think now, and what you want them to think
This is the heart of the brief. "They think refurbished laptops are risky. We want them to think buying refurbished from us is smart." The gap between those two sentences is where the idea lives.
5. The one thing to remember
If the audience remembers only one thing, what should it be? One message. Not a list.
6. Proof
Why should anyone believe you? Reviews, years in business, a signature product, a guarantee, real customers.
7. Tone
How should it feel? Warm, bold, funny, premium, calm? Share two or three examples of content you love and say why, including content from outside your industry.
8. Deliverables
What exactly do you need? Number of reels, posts, stories, lengths, formats, and any other places the content will be used. If you might run it as an ad or put it on your website, say so now, because it affects music licensing. Our guide to Instagram music for business accounts covers the details.
9. Mandatories and no-gos
Logos, legal lines, claims you can't make, topics to avoid, products that must appear. Keep this list short and real.
10. Budget and timeline
Be honest about the budget. It doesn't weaken your position. It helps the agency suggest ideas you can actually afford. Include key dates: shoot, first draft, launch.
11. Approvals
Who signs off, and how quickly? A brief approved by one person and rejected by another at the end is the most expensive kind of brief.
A free creative brief template
Copy this into a document and fill it in.
| Section | Your answer |
|---|---|
| Background | Who we are and what's happening now |
| Goal | One main goal |
| Audience | One real person we're talking to |
| Current belief | What they think now |
| Desired belief | What we want them to think |
| The one thing | The message to remember |
| Proof | Why they should believe it |
| Tone | How it should feel, with examples |
| Deliverables | Formats, numbers, lengths, where it will be used |
| Mandatories | Must-haves and must-avoids |
| Budget | A realistic range |
| Timeline | Shoot, drafts, launch |
| Approvals | Who signs off |
A brief that tells us what to think about gets better work than one that tells us what to make.
What to leave out
- The script. Unless you've already written something you love, let the agency propose the idea.
- Every product feature. Pick the one or two that matter to this audience.
- "Make it viral." Nobody can promise that. Describe the goal behind the wish instead.
- Internal jargon. If your customers wouldn't say it, the brief shouldn't either.
After you send the brief
A good agency will come back with questions. That's a good sign, not a delay. Expect a short conversation, a first idea or treatment, and a plan for the shoot.
Be available for that conversation. The details that make work feel real often come up while talking: a regular customer, a funny moment, the reason the founder started the business. Those details are often where the best ideas, and the best stories, come from. We explain why in storytelling in brand videos.
How our brief works
On our site, the brief takes a couple of minutes: your name, contact details and brand, your Instagram, the services you're interested in, a package if you have one in mind, your budget and a message about what you want to achieve. That's enough for us to come back with questions and first ideas. The detailed creative brief, using the template above, comes next, and we build it together.
If you're comparing options first, our breakdown of social media packages explains what each level includes. For general marketing planning, Think with Google is a useful place to research your audience before writing your brief.
Ready to brief us?
The best projects start with a short, honest brief. Fill in ours here, tell us what you're trying to achieve, and we'll take it from there.